Sesshoumaru's Past
by EternalShadow
Summary: Sesshoumaru goes on a quest as his fathers castle is attacked.
1. Default Chapter

Sesshoumaru is cool.

I wanted to make a cool story.

I also wanted the story to be somewhat original, so I decided to make one about an adventure in his past.

I do not own Inuyasha, Sesshoumaru, or any part of them, -uh, I meant I do not own any of the characters of the Inuyasha story, for those of you who took that the wrong way.

Chapter One

* * *

This is way before Inuyasha & Kagome so they or the gang won't be in the story

Sesshoumaru is young, although he still has his personality, there are slight changes.

Since he is still young, he isn't as powerful as he will be in the future, but he still has all of his attacks

* * *

Sesshoumaru was on guard duty, he was sent to patrol the western wall of the castle by his father, although both knew that he didn't deserve to be doing the duty of common soldiers, his father had commanded him to as part of his training. 

He surveyed the lands before him at even intervals of an hour, within that time he kept his mind on other things, he knew he wouldn't go to sleep, he had only been on duty for a few hours, so he tried to keep himself occupied with other things that had happened that day, nothing but physical conditioning, mental studies, social and politics sessions with the castle advisors, all boring and done with minimal useful information and irrelevant facts.

He drifted into a calm, relaxed state that was almost sleeping, except his amber eyes constantly surveyed the lands around him. All his demonic senses were open and tuned to find any artificial sound made by a creature that didn't belong in the natural rhythm of nature.

It was in this state when he noticed that the rhythm, although still there had grown faint in certain areas, no alarms were sounded, but the absence of certain sounds were dead giveaway that some creature was coming near, his lean body stiffened and he considered raising an alarm, but if he did, the creature would run and none of the guards would be able to catch it as it was still to far away. 

Instead he remained motionless, listening for more clues about the intruder, intruders, he realized as there were several of them. 

As they neared he silently motioned for the youkai around him to prepare for an assault, they threw questioning glances at each other but they obeyed. 

The winds were at his back so he couldn't do much but listen to their coming, he had lessoned his scent earlier so as not to give himself away, but if they kept up coming closer they would be able to see him on the battlements as they were obviously not human, he began calculating what types of demons they could be, most demons had the ability to move nearly silently, and those who didn't could easily learn it. As he listened to their approach he noticed that they were bipedal, so they had to be in a semi-high demon type to have the ability to transform into the smaller humanoid shape. 

"Guard, bring me two troops, one of runners, the other of rangers, come silently" he ordered the nearest soldier in a calm and quiet voice that betrayed the slightest sound of interest. Runners and rangers, youkai who either sent messages rapidly or were used to fast, missions over far distances, they should be quite capable of the tasks he had for them.

As they reached the castle walls three of them began to effortlessly climb them, the remaining two transformed partway into their full demon form, he saw they were some type of arachnid demon, a mix between scorpion and spider, with eight legs, a spider like body, but with a pair of stingers on scorpion tails near the end of their elongated abdomen, and two large scorpion like front pincers.

He wondered why they continued to climb and advance toward the castle, had they not seen him, were they not expecting any guard? He ran through several possibilities of why these demons weren't expecting to be seen on such an obvious and easily seen intrusion. He came up with three semi-plausible reasons: 

They were at the wrong castle, no, then they wouldn't of advanced so carefully.

They weren't expecting any opposition, this is the manor of the Lord of the Western Lands, why wouldn't they be expecting any?

They were burglars, they knew that there were going to be guards, and had prepared for them, they did have weapons on them, but why would they of advanced in such a easily detectable manor, true they were nearly silent, but easily seen. 

Which meant that the second reason was involved, they knew who they were up against and had prepared in such a way that they were expecting no one to see them.

Maybe this day won't be so boring after all he thought as he kept on his calculations against these mysterious intruders. 

The two troops he had sent for arrived, silently as he had ordered. He motioned them to advance to the battlements, still behind eyesight, and prepare to jump. 

It was a 70 foot drop, but any self-respecting youkai could easily make it. He pointed at the walls and motioned that there were three intruders climbing up the wall and where they were climbing. 

As he saw similar reaction to his, a break in the boredom of routine patrol spread as smiles and sneers among the troops, he quickly ran through the possible outcomes of his and his men's attacks, and caught himself just in time, he was almost enjoying himself, and that had nearly cost him a mistake. With demonic speed he raced to the nearest tower on the wall, when he got there he found the youkai stationed there alive and healthy, so that error was fine. He realized he could have easily been distracted and invaded and made a mental note not to make that mistake again, now for the second, he wrote down an order and gave it to one of the soldiers, "take this to the trackers" he ordered in his curt and emotionless voice. The soldier nodded and raced off…

He returned to the western wall, he had kept track of the invaders progress and they were almost to the top, he gave the signal to jump, and all of them leapt over and down, right on top of the three climbers. They leapt in perfect formation, with the only sound in the night being the rustle of clothes.

One of the climbers, obviously the leader, heard the sound, and dropped, transforming into his own demonic shape as he did so, the other two were too preoccupied with their climbing and didn't notice they had been seen until multiple blades from the youkai's swords shredded them apart. 

Sesshoumaru, having leapt slightly before the others, and being in the center, was dropping right on top of the leader, when as he finished his transformation into full youkai form, snaked out all his legs, grabbed the wall, and seemed to become a blur as he ran along the walls of the castle.

He reacted with little difference to his original plan, a calm and controlled fall, the two demons on ground saw him and began to run in the same direction as their leader, Sesshoumaru formed his whip and sliced it across the body of one of them, drew it back in as he landed, and began his hunt.

The Spider Demon moved quickly but not as quickly as its leader, or Sesshoumaru, he easily began to gain ground on it, with the runners and rangers running in unison behind him. The spider realized this and veered to the left, where it could climb up the walls of the castle and temporarily escape the onslaught of the white nemesis behind him. 

Sesshoumaru saw this maneuver and reacted by swiftly leaping on an intercept course to the demonic spider, he calmly formed his whip again and rapidly swept it across the spider repeatedly. For a moment it continued its frantic running, but then it fell apart and blood spurted across the castle walls.

The leader hadn't been caught yet, and Sesshoumaru couldn't catch up to it now, especially with its incredible speed and agility it had demonstrated as it turned a fall into a sideways scuttle in a split second.

During the fight he had realized that these were the elites of a separate army, and that the reason for them advancing so carelessly was that they had expected to be let in. 

The castle was under a silent invasion, with these spider-like demons being messengers

* * *

I know that demons and youkai are roughly the same thing, but I mainly use the demon term to describe features, such as demonic senses, and for evil youkai, such as the demons advanced. Youkai is mainly used to describe the good one, such as Sesshoumaru's troops. These will occasionally be switched to show they are the same.

What was in the letter that Sesshoumaru had ordered be sent to the trackers?

What are the trackers?

Why did Sesshoumaru let the leader escape without even trying to chase or track it?

I know that these question sort of answer each other but keep on reading 'cause its going to get real interesting soon…


	2. 2nd part of Castles Assault

Chapter Two

Directly after the events of the previous chapter

* * *

Sesshoumaru's good mood from the previous encounter evaporated as he realized he wouldn't be able to join the trackers in their hunt. He would have to report to his father to explain the night's events to him. He enjoyed working with the trackers, actually hunters; they were the elites of the castle, faster, stronger, and far more skilled than any other youkai, except for himself and his father. They were of one of the highest rank of dog demon, although some were rumored to have wolf or feline blood in them as they had such great ferocity, speed, or stealth. They each had the same uniform identifying them as troops of the Lord of the Western Lands. And each had their own weapons of choice to use in their hunts. They were know to possess strange weapons, from 7 foot blades without a handle to swords that bent of at odd angles from the hilts, to strangely shaped metal knives that when thrown properly, could pass through a victim disrupted several internal organs and emerging with vital arteries and veins from the heart that rendered the prey's death instantaneous. Some didn't even use weapons other than their own insanely sharp claws, reasoning that the hunt was more enjoyable when they felt their kill, more connected to it as it was done with their hands.

Not being able to work beside such skilled warriors in an actual hunt was disappointing. He strode over to the gatehouse and into the courtyard, he saw Inutaisho already there waiting for him.

He walked up to him and as he neared Inutaisho he assumed attention position, and saluted.

* * *

"What happened?" The question was more like a demand than anything else, Sesshoumaru knew that Inutaisho had already been informed of everything that happened, he just wanted to hear it from him.

"There was an attempted infiltration, the purpose and lords who organized this attack are unknown." Sesshoumaru calmly replied.

"Why didn't you keep one alive for interrogation."

"It would be to our tactical advantage to find out where these demons came from, not who sent them, as they were highly trained and could lie about their intentions, all but the leader are useless as they would be killed by their own partners, or by themselves. The leader wouldn't let himself be slain by anyone other than a high ranking demon, carrying his honor on even in death."

"Then why did you not follow him?"

Sesshoumaru noted a trace of anger, or irritation at these words, what had he done? Inutaisho knew he would of wanted him to report to him, so he could gain a full account of what had happened, not be running around the countryside on an errand that could easily be taken care of professionals instead of continuing his training and studies.

"The trackers would have done just as well as I would have, you would of wanted me to report to you."

"That's would have been what you should of done, not what you did." It was almost a growl.

He was puzzled by the last bit, he had sent a message to the trackers to be ready, and his anger began to grow as he realized he was taking responsibility for a lazy watchman.

"I sent a message to them, telling them to begin hunting the demon running south." Still having a calm, yet slightly more business-like voice.

"No message was received, if there was a message then you are speaking of the dead guard found minutes after the alarm was raised, which wasn't raised by you."

Still angry…

"An alarm being raised would only of let the intruders know we knew of them. I had all the troops I needed, the trackers would of easily hunted down the spider-demon, no alarm was needed.

Inutaisho knew this was logical but the intruder had still gotten away. So instead he asked a different question, a more important one.

"Why did they advance as they did?" If he did not know the answer then he would be punished, as he would of failed the guarding assignment he had been giving.

"They were expecting to be let in, suspicious guards that are regularly stationed there should be executed."

His son was beginning to develop, the training was turning him into a rightful heir to him, almost.

"No, all the guards on duty will be executed, the corrupted ones will be dead and the ones that were innocent were to stupid to see their companions treachery, and so will die for their stupidity."

Sesshoumaru nodded

* * *

Later on that afternoon, Sesshoumaru was inspecting the bodies of the dead demons, three of them were nothing but scraps from their attacks, but one was only sliced in two.

It was garbed in complete black with no emblems. There were no records of any demon lord having arachnid forces in the castle archives. Nor did the demons have any marks identifying them to any lord. 

He would have to gain knowledge of a general area it came from by the residue and such that one would get from crossing certain areas of the environment. When he examined the pincers, he noticed there was a large quantity of blood on them. He leaned closer and inhaled the scent, his demonic senses telling him that the blood was mainly that of birds.

They must of slaughtered the birds and other animals that would begin a natural alarm, this would require great speed and skill, although he could flit among the trees at great speed and agility, most other demon races couldn't. 

He walked out the castle to examine the area where the intruders came from. He war correct as he noticed the various bodies of birds littered along the floor of the forest. 

They must of gone thought great pain to make sure every bird was dead. But they wouldn't go through all that trouble if they weren't expecting to gain easy access to the inside of the castle.

That was one area that required more examination

* * *

He had inspected all the rooms in the castle, and hadn't found a scent anywhere in the castle that resembled that of the spider demon.

He knew that at least someone in the castle had to be involved in the infiltration. If no one was discovered soon he would have to find a way to draw them out. 

With nothing at the castle being out of the norm, he decided to begin tracking the demon himself, after ordering a slight rearrangement of guards so that his spies would be able to note the actions of the castles high ranking personnel. 

With nine trackers ordered to accompany him, he began his quest

* * *

With that bit of castle politics out of the way, the real action can start.


	3. 1st Part Hunt

Chapter Three

* * *

Sesshoumaru has begun his hunt for the leader of the demon spiders, right now he considers the possibility that they are the elites of a castle, but doesn't give it much thought, which is why he does little more than track the demon, not send for more troops.

Sesshoumaru and the trackers were some of the most powerful demons in the world, and although the spider demons were naturally incredibly fast, they were slightly slower than the methodical, determined sprint of the pack of dog demons.

They crossed mile after mile in seconds, knowing that the leader was taking them off course many times, but also knowing that they would catch up to him and would interrogate him soon. 

They began to smell fear as they neared it, and sneered at his weakness as he quickly veered back on course to his castle, where he might find temporary safety. But then they abruptly halted, skidding several feet and leaving grooves of brown dirt as their claws sank into the ground. 

Sesshoumaru snarled as he grew angry that the hunt was cheated upon. Then regained his composure when he heard the thud of one of his men falling.

He didn't wheel around, as that would leave him open to an attack. Instead he kept himself perfectly still, trying to sense the direction or other information about the silent attacker. He inhaled the smell of the blood and fluids from the dead youkai, and was startled to find that the chemicals he detected meant it had been decapitated, and the angle was perfectly level to the ground, since the youkai had fallen directly forward, and no direction of the attack could be determined. The thud was at the back of the unit, which meant that although it was incredibly fast and deadly, it couldn't come face to face with any of his units. The unseen aggressor knew how to kill youkai, few attacks besides instantaneous death could kill them such powerful and quick healing creatures.

"Continue," he ordered them, going in the exact direction they had been traveling; they would eventually come upon the point that the spider they were following, and at the speed that they were traveling, it would force the assailant to follow at a speed that would be difficult to keep such stealth. 

As they kept on running, they saw flits of dark shadows behind the trees. It was at such incredibly high speed and agility; they knew even Sesshoumaru wouldn't be able to match it. Two more youkai fell without sound or warning. Although this time, they picked up it's sent, totally alien to anything they had ever sensed before, unlike the spider/scorpion demons.

They didn't stop running, they loyally obeyed Sesshoumaru, none of them ever feeling fear as they were hunted and killed. Two fell again, the ones behind them leaping over the decapitated bodies. Less than half were left, Sesshoumaru knew that none of their weapons would be wielded quickly enough to harm it, they would have make a last stand, using their bare claws and teeth for their only chance of survival…

* * *

Good so far??


	4. 2nd Part Hunt

Chapter Four

* * *

They were being slaughtered, like animals, like humans, this angered him even more. The son of the most powerful demons in the world being slaughtered like a human. A weak, stupid, pathetic human. He hadn't had one of the most pleasant lives, and had faced death many times. He reflected on this as one more youkai fell. His demonic powers not sensing anything other than a flicker across his youkai's upper torso/neck. One of the Youkai had his hands up, one protecting his neck, the other his lower torso, but the assassin was so quick it had sliced the head of without touching the arm. He had been exposed to death and nearly impossible situations shortly after birth, all of these exercises being training for him as being heir to the Lord of the Western Lands. He had faced various specialties of Demons, invisible ones, incredible strong ones, unassailably defensible ones, some who could turn themselves into elements, even quick ones whose attacks flickered faster than a flame, but none that could be this fast for this long, or this stealthy, it moved as if his demons heads were just falling off and all it was was the flicker of their death, and it only seemed to gain speed as it did so. He had realized early in life that it was easier to die than live, and had no reason to continue living other than the shame of death by lesser demons. However this one was incredibly powerful, and the fact that it had slaughtered nine of the most skilled trackers in the kingdom should excuse hid death as one by an incredibly skilled assassin.

* * *

The three youkai around him assumed a triangle, with him at the center. One was instantly killed as it scanned the woods to his left. With only two they assumed a guard position directly beside him, slight behind so as to guard his back. Again Sesshoumaru sensed its flicker and heard the thud of another body falling. With only one remaining they stood back to back. Neither of them of them fearing death, for they had been exposed to it many times and knew that everyone died, it was just a matter of time.

"Lord Sesshoumaru, it has been an honor to hunt beside you, farewell." The last youkai stated in a whisper. "My apologies for this statement and not being able to protect you, if you had been but a decade older not even this embodiment of death would of stood against you."

If these were any other circumstances, Sesshoumaru would have been angered that one of his most trained and disciplined and soldiers had spoken out of place, and even spoken as if there was no chance of survival, but he knew that there was none, and forgave him as he fell, turning to speak to the head whose eyes still had a fraction of light. He made linked eye contact and spoke: "It is not your fault, you have served well all you life and you name shall be honored by all those in your field." One of the highest praises a soldier could receive.

* * *

Although these demons, had never experienced fear in their lives, they resented death, as that would mean they were the ones being killed and hunted. And as dog demons, that would be the lowest way to die. 

Sesshoumaru respected this philosophy but to him, death on the battlefield was the proper way to die, not the lowest form of it. That would mean you life had a purpose, and you would die fulfilling it. 

As he faced the seeming empty woods, no sound was in it, every animal knew that death was eminent and had fled long ago. 

He was perfectly calm, expecting at any moment for his head to be severed, and just hoping that he would be able to at least glimpse his opponent as he died. The strike came, but it didn't kill him, instead it sliced deep into his left shoulder, blood began to seep, then slowed, and stopped as his demonic healing took effect. His momentary inattentive thinking as he prepared for death was annihilated as a flurry of thoughts ran to his head, two more strikes, one almost severing his left leg, the other cutting halfway through the bone of his right forearm.

* * *

With a new determination, he stood straight again, and picked up one of the swords of the dead youkai at his feet, without the slightest indication that he had been wounded at all. As he tuned into his surroundings and himself, he calculated the next time the shadow of death would strike.

As he sensed his attacker for the first time absorbing and refining the aura of death around him preparing for an attack and flashing toward him, he began to slice him self repeatedly, without the slightest thought to life, death, or anything besides the sword in his hand and his emotionless thoughts to killing the flickering entity that sped towards him, 

It halted, the slightest pause in its advance, but it was enough, his whip which he had been preparing in his arm lashed out and in a new attack, it became a sphere of light, poison, and intentional yet unfeeling death. 

His own wounds, which had stopped seeping out blood, spurted it out as he reached a new physical level of strength.

As the pieces of the entity that had been attacking him fell across him, he wasn't surprised to find that it contained no blood, little more than bones, and skin, some muscle. The dark death filled aura and souls of his warriors gained freedom and dispersed throughout the woods. 

He slowly walked towards the nearest tree, without the slightest indication he was n pain or had suffered any difficulties besides the slowness, and leaned against it. Being careful not to fall. 

He had suffered great injuries which would take time for him to heal, but should be alright by morning.

* * *

For those of you who didn't get the above part, I'll explain.

The entity following them wasn't living, it was the husk of an ancient evil magician/warrior who kept himself alive by the act of killing, the aura of fear or resentment of death he installed, and the souls of the people he killed. (The warriors, although didn't fear death, despised it as it would end their life of hunting, Sesshoumaru, didn't fear or despise death, but welcomed it as he knew everyone died sooner or later, and considered this as one of the best opportunities to end his life honorably.) 

The evil death eating couldn't salvage any energy or harvest the soul of Sesshoumaru if he killed him unless he installed fear or dread into him. He tried to do so by repeatedly wounding him, but Sesshoumaru realized this and shocked/horrified the entity by wounding and nearly killing himself. Then he attacked, although it was a magical husk that would be impervious to most swords, whips, and conventional weapons, it wouldn't stand a chance against the poisonous, acidic, light whip, which was also infused with magical powers as it was an extension of Sesshoumaru.

The reason that it had an alien scent was because it was from a different continent, you'll find out where later, if you review… 


	5. Sesshoumaru Awakes

Chapter Five

Unknown to Sesshoumaru, who was still recovering from his injuries, another demon was watching him, she was a slightly small, beautiful demon, some type of dog also, but not of any recognizable type, slightly slimmer than most dog demons.

(AN, don't worry, this isn't another romance story and I won't take him out of character.)

She had sensed the group of demons coming closer and went to investigate, although she thought that the guardian was going to kill the youkai, she was somehow glad it didn't.

She had only seen this demon today but admired him, for he was the first one ever to defeat the guardian, all others had failed, her father had only managed to trap it in this area by sacrificing her mother and the peasants in the woods to keep it occupied and carving mystic and powerful runes around the trees of the forest to isolate it. She knew how to avoid being fed upon by the entity, bringing along a small mouse as a sacrifice, then fatally wounding it and leaving it, letting the entity gather its energy as it died and running quickly away.

She had never thought that you could fight it as he did, with just having no fear of death and beginning to kill oneself so as to rob it of a soul.

She respected him, Sesshoumaru was his name, she admired his ability to appear so clean and handsome so soon after a fight, with the blood that was all over him having been cleansed from his suit and hair by itself somehow.

She sensed her fathers troops beginning to converge on this position, and knew that they would reach him before he woke, with little thought to the consequences, she ran back, and raised her energy in a harmful and aggressive frequency, drawing the soldiers in that direction. Then she darted back to the castle, but met her father at the steps.

"Where were you?" he asked in a quiet, menacing voice.

"I- was making sure that the guardian was really dead…" She quickly lied.

"Did you see the one who killed it?" He asked.

"Yes," she replied, not giving out more information than she had to.

"Why didn't you kill it, he must have been wounded!" His voice was once again menacing but angrier this time.

"That was why I didn't wound it." She replied calmly, she knew her father knew of her ethics, and would allow her to go unpunished.

Her father was obviously angry, but she reminded him of his wife, so he began walking away, but quickly halted when he remembered the mysterious energy signature that distracted the troops.

"Wait," he ordered.

"That was your energy, why did it flash in such a way?" He asked skeptical.

"--The Guardian wasn't anywhere near, I was startled." Once again using the evil guardian for an excuse.

He was still skeptical, but didn't do anything yet.

Sesshoumaru woke, he had sensed troops coming in his sleep, but couldn't do anything about it until he reached a reasonably healed state, still weak from the lack of energy after healing, the intensity of his whip attack, and the amount of running he had to do the previous night. He tried to identify his surroundings, but they were magically shielded so only a select few would know where they were if they didn't know their surroundings.

The troops were still about an hour away, so he salvaged some weapons from his dead youkai that he was particularly skilled at, and silently sat against another tree, beginning to focus his energy to return.

The troops angered at having been set off course, began to converge at the correct point again, as they sensed the demon beginning to regain its energy. The hordes of many different demons quickly marched towards the youkai.

The troops of the house lord are of a completely new and strange form than that of any Sesshoumaru has ever faced. Sesshoumaru is all alone, and he can't find his way back home, the only option he has is to find the castle lord, find out why he attacked his fathers castle, and kill him if he must.

That's after he gets past all those demon troops…


End file.
